InternetNews.com states: "Microsoft (or a really smart ISV) should build a full application manager for Windows, similar to what most Linux distributions do today." Most Windows applications come with their own distinctive updating mechanism (much like Mac OS X), instead of having a centralised updating location like most Linux distributions offer. While it certainly wouldn't be harmful for Windows to gain such a feature - the question remains: isn't it time we rethink program installation and management altogether?

Why people write stuff they dont have a clue about. The repositories ARE NOT limited by the provider of the distribution for Linux. There are PPA's (Personnal Package Archives) from where you can get more bleeding edge versions of your softwares. Those PPA are basically 3rd party repositories and their use is more than trivial. Of course for Linux, some softwares are more or less available in PPA's depending on how popular and complete they are and THAT IS FINE. Who wants to install a 0.3 beta anyway but a beta-tester?... Do you guys ever install Beta's coming from microsoft? No because they dont even release them.